Benjamin Suarez has filed criminal charges in Stark County State Court against Ohio US Senator Sherrod Brown; former Cleveland US Attorney Steve Dettelbach; former Assistant US Attorney to Steve Dettelbach, Carol Rendon; and two FBI agents who were under the supervision of Dettelbach and Rendon, Mark McMurtry and Mike Sirohman.

The Criminal Charging Affidavit provides evidence that the FBI agents engaged in witness intimidation by offering Suarez’s personal trainer David Dearth a $92,000 bribe to provide false testimony that Suarez tampered with the jury in the July 2014 trial where Suarez and his company were acquitted of all 19 charges of election law violations. They also threatened to harm Dearth’s family and terrorized his wife and children in a confrontation in a supermarket parking lot. This confrontation was so traumatic that Dearth’s children were crying and wetting their pants.

The Criminal Charging Affidavit also provides evidence that Suarez’s former company attorney Mike Puterbaugh was intimidated by Dettelbach, Rendon and the FBI agents to commit perjury when he testified at the trail in July of 2014 concerning the charge against Suarez of witness tampering. Puterbaugh had exculpatory evidence proving that Suarez did not engage in witness tampering. He was intimidated into lying that he did not remember the incident concerning the exculpatory evidence. Then in August 2015, one of Suarez’s attorneys Craig Conley encountered Puterbaugh on a sidewalk in downtown Canton. Conley confronted Puterbaugh on his recollection of the exculpatory evidence incident. Puterbaugh said he definitely remembered the incident and would sign an affidavit providing new evidence that would get a new trial for Suarez. Puterbaugh also admitted this to another Suarez attorney, James Feldman, who was drafting a motion for a new trial for Suarez. Then Puterbaugh was again obviously intimidated by the same suspects and refused to sign the affidavit after promising to do so.

The Obama Administration has a long history of corruption which includes a pattern of using Soviet-style tactics of having law enforcement punish political opponents. Suarez was one of many Republican donor victims of these tactics. President Donald Trump was also a victim as evidenced by the recent exposure of the Russian collusion hoax carried out by former Obama Justice Department officials.

The Criminal Charging affidavit and the supporting evidence affidavits are attached.

Suarez’s personal trainer also filed criminal charges against Mark McMurtry and Mike Sirohman in November, 2018.
Sherrod Brown also ran false and libelous ads in 2018 that damaged Suarez. Suarez filed a libel lawsuit against Brown in Stark County State Court on October 11, 2018, which is now in litigation.

This malicious prosecution and wrongful conviction of Mr. Suarez caused the loss of over 3,000 jobs in Stark County. The Justice Association has sent this Criminal Charging Affidavit to US Attorney General Bill Barr, Cleveland US Attorney Justin Herdman and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, and we have demanded a Grand Jury investigation.

For further information, contact Jennifer Werner at jwerner@thejusticeassociation.org.